Powers
This is a heavily edited version of articles that have appeared in the '''Canon Material' forum, combined with sources from stories and forum posts by canon authors. Not everything is sourced. The best way of telling what came from the Canon Material forum, other than going there and looking, is writing style.'' Mutants and other meta-humans. Most people think of super-powered humans as mutants. Nothing could be further from the truth! Many meta-humans gain their powers in other ways, such as direct bestowal from a god (or similar entity, such as a demon), chemicals, devises or whatever. In reading this, it's important to keep this in mind. Meta-gene complex :The Meta Gene Complex is a series of altered DNA proteins and individual genes within them, spread across the X chromosome. This protein and Gene alteration has been observed in 18 separate DNA locations, but there may be more and this could simply be confirmation bias. All Active mutants have these altered proteins and genes, but not everyone who has it is a mutant.E.E Nalley at the Forums, May 30, 2017 The modern variant of the meta-gene complex appeared late in the 19th century. According to one authority''The Braeburn Report, the first known possessor was a woman named Gian Han, in China. Since information on her is very sketchy, it's impossible to say whether she was born before or after the members of the Mystic Six. (Whether they possess the modern meta-gene complex is also not certain.) While the modern variant of the meta-gene complex is relatively recent as such things go, variations on it have shown up through the centuries. These have all been rare, and most did not breed true, the major exception being the Bloodline trait, which is heritable in roughly the same ways as the modern MGC. The modern variation breeds true and appears to be inherited in a non-Mendelian fashion. Normal laws of genetics that apply to the spread of highly advantageous mutations do not appear to apply here: it is starkly impossible that a mutation could spread from a single individual to a sixth of humanity in around four generations. There is apparently something else going on, but so far nobody has figured out what. Goodkind Research and Dr. Hammond are pursuing the notion that there is a retro-virus responsible.Ayla and the Late Trevor James Goodkind'' On the contrary, Mephisto the Mentalist thinks it may have something to do with the military's WW II super-soldier research.''Razzle Dazzle: Part 2'' Mephisto is not, however, the most reliable character. Baloo, the ancient Atlantean physician to the Five Fold Court, has stated that it was designed in Atlantis (he was against it). This deepens the mystery of why it did not begin to spread until recently.The Banshee's Tale It is also not necessary to have a meta-gene complex to have preter-human powers. There are a wide variety of treatments that can give a previously normal person preter-human powers, ranging from chemical through magical and various devises (see Dr. Pygmalion) The distribution of preter-human powers is also not even worldwide. North America (in particular New York) appears to be a hot-spot, with Europe, Australia, Central and South America in second place. In other places around the globe there are relatively fewer expressed mutants. China is a black hole: whether they don't have any, or whether the Government of the PRC is controlling the situation is unknown. There are a number of discussions of this on the forums. WOG is that the New York hot spot is a tribute to the comics industry tending to put a disproportionate number of super powered individuals there. Biological Basis One of the fundamental universe concepts in the Whateleyverse is that most super-powers have a biological basis. Thus you will find weird organs or people's bodies being modified to support a super-power. Explanation of Power Terminology When metahuman powers first emerged in the 1930's, they completely caught the scientific community napping. Across the globe, people were blithely ignoring many of the laws of physics, and no one had the slightest idea as to how they were doing it. Scientists immediately started studying these remarkable people, and started coming up with theories and terms to define and explain what these people did. Most of those theories have been discarded as obsolete, but many of those terms are still with us. The thing to remember about mutant power terminology, is that it's trying to describe not only what a mutant does, but how they do it, as well. One of the more confusing things about power terminology as it's currently used is a tendency for people to confuse traits and syndromes. A trait is the cause, whereas a syndrome is the effect. A trait is the actual genetic sequence or biological mechanism that causes a mutant ability. A syndrome is the more obvious display of power that comes from a trait. The thing is, a syndrome can be produced from many different causes. For instance a mutant who produces a fire effect might be the avatar of a fire spirit, an energizer who creates plasmas, a manifestor whose manifestations take on a fire aspect, a pyrokinetic, or wizard with a fire attunement. Whenever possible, these classifications prefer to describe the trait rather than the result, but all too often in everyday use it happens that people describe the syndrome. You'll sometimes see the prefix faux- or pseudo- used to describe a power. The two terms are interchangeable.WOG from Diane; message lost in forum crash They may be a shorthand for a power that looks like the corresponding mutant power but was acquired in a different fashion. General When looking at the individual descriptions, there are a few things to remember. First, power rankings go from 1 to 7 in some categories, from 1 to 3 in others. In general, the higher the ranking, the fewer people there are in the category. Some groups have two rating scales: for example, most Espers have a 1 to 3 scale, but the Gadgeteer sub-category uses the 1 to 7 scale. Then there's the entirely bizarre scale for Shifters, which looks like the 1 to 7 scale, but has a quite different basis. Second, this isn't a Role Playing Game, so powers don't "balance" the way you'd expect in a RPG. The MCO, for example, uses a completely different 1 to 10 scale of Threat Rating. Here's the --> list of powers General Rankings A number of ranking systems are used within or without the Academy, mostly independent of each other. New York City agencies prefer the Miller-McFarlane System letter grading system.Saks and Violence, Part 2 The Yerunkle-Corbin System (above) sees the most use, and is notable for placing gadgeteering as an esper trait. As of early 2007 the Hewley-Aranis system, which is known to rate Gadgeteers on a 1 to 7 scale (see Gadgeteer)The Case of the Poisonous Patent, hasn't been adopted by the DPA and so has no force of Law or Federal Regulation.The Riddle of Sappho, Canto III The general table below is provided courtesy J.G. in the Canon Material forum. (It has been edited for format.) List of Powers Each of these has its own page, which more fully describes the cause or effect. Many of them also have pages that list the people with that power. : there was originally a suggestion that powers pages use the present participle (that is, the -ing verb form) if grammatically possible. For example, Manifesting instead of Manifestor or Shifting instead of Shifter. Then pages that list people with that power would use the -er or -or form of the corresponding noun, possibly in the plural, so it would be Manifesting and Manifestors. Mutant Powers by Cause This list describes the basis for a mutant's powers. It does not describe the actual manifestation, or effect, of that power. *Avatar ** Paladin WOG from Kristin Darkin; message lost in forum crash ** Channeler ** Astral Avatar *Devisor *Empath (a common ESP subtype) *ESP ** Astral projection, aura reading, Clairvoyant, divination, danger sense, dowser, empathy, finder, Gadgeteer, medium, new senses, Paragon, precog, psychometry, super or enhanced senses. *Energizer *Exemplar *Gadgeteer (a common ESP subtype) *Healing *Manifestor *Package Deal Psychic *Power Mimic *Regeneration *Shifter *Telekinesis (also psychokinesis) **TK Superman **Pyrokinesis *Telepathy *Warper **density, electromagnetic, gravitic, interdimensional, teleportation, probability, reality, size, limited time travel or distortion, other effects *Wizard Non-Mutant Powers by Cause These are ways of getting super-powers that don't involve being a mutant. Much of this is described in the second chapter of Silver Linings.Silver Linings: Part 2 *Batson Factor - Shazam! *Dyna-Host *Imbued *Modified - e.g. bit by a Mad Scientist. Also called Experiments or, for something done on a mass scale, Augments. *Origin - e.g. bit by a radioactive gerbil *Power gem - e.g. Green Lantern *Power Suits - or the Science Hero. e.g. Iron Man. *Science Hero - or science villains, depending. Many, but not all, are also Power Suit jockeys. *Training - e.g. Batman or Dr Strange *Technician - one without any powers of their own, but has some devise, magical item, etc. that grants them extraordinary abilities. Many Science Heroes/Villains and baseline Mages have these, as well as their other skills and/or power armor. Sometimes called 'prop men' in criminal circles (at least in NYC). Powers by manifestation or effect The following list is extremely incomplete. However, it's the basis for powers descriptions used in the sims. * Blaster (energy powers of some sort, ranged attacks) * Brick (super-strength, very tough, good in a knock-down-drag-out-fight) * Mover (some sort of transportation power) ** superspeed ** flight ** teleportation, ** intangibility * Brain (either technology, magic or psychic powers) ** Martial Artist (Training can develop great reflexes, good but not astounding strength, pretty tough) * Weirdo (some bizarre kind of power, like being able to stretch, that doesn't fix the above categories well) ** Siren (voice-based powers affecting mind, matter, or both) Also phrased as: * Bricks: tougher than shit, stronger than f---. * Blasters: Walking artillery. * Movers: Anyone who can get from here to there faster than you can. * Brains: Mages, Psychics, Gadgeteers or Devisors, or anyone who can f--- up your day by being smarter, more imaginative and more inventive than you, with what they’ve got handy. And * Wild Cards: Two or more of the above mixed into an unholy union of REDACTED. References Category:Powers Category:The Universe Category:Concepts Category:2011 Forum Crash